The thing I took away from this was mistake minimization. As shipping the wrong item likely results in a mess of expensive actions down the road, it is much much better to make sure that the right item is shipped the first time. To this end they are willing to shuffle their entire warehouse just to prevent similar items from being set next to each other.
Shuffled is also a feature. You almost never buy a 32" TV and a 34" TV at the same time, right? So it is highly unlikely that similar items would benefit from being next to each other. It helps for finding if that was a problem, but finding is solved by computers anyway, so the layout can be optimised for pathing instead.
If you watch the Kiva video linked above, they also optimize for popularity of items - so as items are picked out of each crate, the remaining items are analyzed. If there's no popular items remaining on the create, they go and park it at the back of the warehouse.
I don't think it's really random.Since it's dictated by the computer, even though it looks random, i'm sure there are some patterns in the order(for example there are items that statistically sell together) ,But maybe they keep it as a trade secret , only to be known by a small group of developers and managers.
> Aside from a few exceptions, most items are randomly stowed. The stowers all have a rate, and because of that, will find whatever space fits their needs.
We only have a few queues to stow into per shift where all the product comes in, so I doubt the computer determines THAT much of it, but I could be wrong.
